The Foxfire books ever since I was little. It's a series of books documenting traditional skills like crop growing, fiddle making, blacksmithing, plumbing, foraging, cooking, etc. as done by rural people in Appalachia. They contain all kinds of valuable information in them as well as a good source of life skills & fun hobbies. I recommend them to everyone.
Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?
121–130 of 188 posts
Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?
#122Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez is a personal favorite. I re-read every year or so to make sure I'm thinking about my real personal goals. It also makes me trim the fat from my personal budget again each time I read.
I used it to prepare for retirement. The investment in T-bills is not the sole strategy they proposed but the basic ideas are solid.
> The investment in T-bills is not the sole strategy they proposed but the basic ideas are solid.
Agreed. They actually updated their stance in their second edition that was published in 2017 since Vicki acknowledges that their advice was only relevant when it was originally published. They lean more towards index funds now.
Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?
#123Atomic Habits by James Clear - The art of showing up has been effective and it worked for me.
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy - You get what you've put your soul into
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight - I love the storytelling by the author, you can hear Phil telling this story himself.
Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?
#124The Bible. Even if you don't care for it's spiritual implications, there is a rich history that is used by archaeologists, and many face-value lessons of cause and effect, and even recommendations on how to manage a business and employees. The beautiful non-spiritual message is that humans don't change, but we can still learn from histories mistakes.
Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?
#125I don't tend to reread many books in general. C.S. Lewis and Tolkien's fictional series are probably the only exceptions. However, I do frequently reread books from the Bible, typically the English Standard Version. And yes, I would make the claim that all of these are non-fictional books/letters. - Jonah: for its description of God's desire to have compassion on a group of people who don't know him, by leaving Jonah…
Ah, an ESV brother. Great selection of books!
Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?
#126The Bible. Even if you don't care for it's spiritual implications, there is a rich history that is used by archaeologists, and many face-value lessons of cause and effect, and even recommendations on how to manage a business and employees. The beautiful non-spiritual message is that humans don't change, but we can still learn from histories mistakes.
I feel like I've got to read it eventually just so I can be up to speed on all the millions of references to it in other works of art. In a college class recently, we read beowulf, and I was confused what was meant when grendel was described as being from "cain's clan" - I was raised non-religiously by parents who had both been burned pretty bad by institutional religion, so it was pretty much only me and an asian immigrant in that class who needed the reference explained. (Granted, I was one of the few non english majors in that class, which also probably affected my lack of understanding.)
Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?
#127Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches, and Internetworking Protocols 2nd Edition - Radia Perlman Every 2-3 years, particularly in the periods when I'm not actively in network engineering, I re-read this book from start-finish - and it just completely centers my mindset with regards to pretty much every fundamental topic in Network Engineering. There almost didn't need to be a 2nd Edition - most of the major to…
i always thought switch came from the old telephone "switchboards", which were usually handled inside of large buildings.
you'd call the operator to route (e.g. a router) your call to the right location, and then the switchboard operator inside said location. routing itself came from postal routing, IIRC
Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?
#128Bible is one of few obvious choices of foundational books.
Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?
#129folklore.org - Anecdotes about the development of Apple's original Macintosh, and the people who made it (123 stories), A. Hertzfeld
Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?
#130The Bible. Even if you don't care for it's spiritual implications, there is a rich history that is used by archaeologists, and many face-value lessons of cause and effect, and even recommendations on how to manage a business and employees. The beautiful non-spiritual message is that humans don't change, but we can still learn from histories mistakes.
I feel like I've got to read it eventually just so I can be up to speed on all the millions of references to it in other works of art. In a college class recently, we read beowulf, and I was confused what was meant when grendel was described as being from "cain's clan" - I was raised non-religiously by parents who had both been burned pretty bad by institutional religion, so it was pretty much only me and an asian im…
Going through life without having read through at least some of the KJV Bible and Shakespeare would be like watching The Wizard of Oz in black and white – sure, you'd be able to follow the plot, but you'd be missing out on the color experience. Similarly, without having some foundation in those two foundational works of English language, you'd be missing idiom, metaphor, and allegory that you might not even realize is there. Imagine trying to read President Lincoln's speeches without getting his references to scripture. Imagine trying to read Faulkner's Sound and the Fury without getting the titular reference to Shakespeare and the structural reference to the Gospels (the same story told by four different authors).